again it wasnt true in my case. Me and my relative all have at least one
hardwired phone and i could not use the phone to contact them from the
4:10PM on Thursday till about 7PM on Friday.

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
Wired telephones worked well for contact of distant family during the
blackout as long as they have hardwired phones on the other end. Too many
cordless units lack base units with battery backup. I ran my house on a
5kw
generator until the power came back. The first 30 minutes I ran the radios
and computers on a 2000 VA UPS

N2UBP

I know that there are several providers and most of them were out. I might
be wrong about Verizon but most of the cellular phone were out of action
which was my point. Because if that's why most people have cellulars so that
no matter where they are or what happens they can contact their family etc.
But now as far as im concerned cellulars are not reliable.

"Big AL" wrote in message
. net...
Wrong

Verizon cellular worked great in Manhattan during outage. Made and
received
16 callsi in 3 hrs..No busy signals or others. All calls came through and
we initiated without problems!


"mad amoeba" wrote in message
. net...
I was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me
thinking
of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones were
out.
Cellular phones didn't work either. So the only way of receiving
informaiton
was by radio.
My old Sony wm-gx670 did quite nicely. But what if I would need to
communicate with
my relatives or even cops to let them know of an emmergency. If
telephone/cellular/internet
are not available what are my other options? Let's say people I want to
communicate with
are more than several miles away in an urban area. That makes CB radio
useless--right? So
then as far as I understand using ham radio is my only option. With that
you
can either get in
touch with your relatives directly, provided they have ham radio as
well,
or
you can call
some person in an area without blackout and tell them to call
police/ambulance etc if that's
what you need.

Not knowing much myself about scanners/shortwaves/hams myself I want to
ask
you guys
with more experience if the below piece of equipment is what I need.

As far as I understand this is an handheld ham radio which also
functions
as
a scanner and
can also receive on a shortwave band. So it will allow me to communicate
with people
far away even in urban setting, it is portable and it will also allow me
to
monitor news as
well as police/firefighters etc. Am I right?

Yaesu VX-2R
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0176.html

the price is kind of steep but for all-in-one product I would be willing
to
pay it.

I live in NYC & ( obviously ) was affected by the blackout.

The cheap Family Service radios are a good bet during power outages /
Emergencies.
The range is limited by line of site;
BUT
If you know within reason where the other person is, and can get yourself close
to them, you can communicate quite well.

As you now, The other choice is quite a bit more expensive. Don't know how it
would work in a city... metal buildings et al.

Also, during a real emergency, the people on the other end might not turn on
their set unless you've rehearsed / planned what to do during a specific
scenario.

If cost is no object, get a couple of VHF transceivers & test them out in
a " real life" situation.

I don't now how far they actually broadcast with 1- 1.5 watt of power..
get some on a " return if useless" basis & test them out.


Dan


In article , "mad amoeba"
writes:

was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me thinking of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones were
out.
Cellular phones didn't work either. So the only way of receiving informaiton
was by radio.
My old Sony wm-gx670 did quite nicely. But what if I would need to
communicate with
my relatives or even cops to let them know of an emmergency. If
telephone/cellular/internet
are not available what are my other options? Let's say people I want to
communicate with
are more than several miles away in an urban area. That makes CB radio
useless--right? So
then as far as I understand using ham radio is my only option. With that you
can either get in
touch with your relatives directly, provided they have ham radio as well, or
you can call
some person in an area without blackout and tell them to call
police/ambulance etc if that's
what you need.

Not knowing much myself about scanners/shortwaves/hams myself I want to ask
you guys
with more experience if the below piece of equipment is what I need.

As far as I understand this is an handheld ham radio which also functions as
a scanner and
can also receive on a shortwave band. So it will allow me to communicate
with people
far away even in urban setting, it is portable and it will also allow me to
monitor news as
well as police/firefighters etc. Am I right?

Yaesu VX-2R
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0176.html

the price is kind of steep but for all-in-one product I would be willing to
pay it.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:12:21 GMT, "mad amoeba" wrote:

I was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me thinking of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones were
out.
Cellular phones didn't work either. So the only way of receiving informaiton
was by radio.
My old Sony wm-gx670 did quite nicely. But what if I would need to
communicate with
my relatives or even cops to let them know of an emmergency. If
telephone/cellular/internet
are not available what are my other options? Let's say people I want to
communicate with
are more than several miles away in an urban area. That makes CB radio
useless--right? So
then as far as I understand using ham radio is my only option. With that you
can either get in
touch with your relatives directly, provided they have ham radio as well, or
you can call
some person in an area without blackout and tell them to call
police/ambulance etc if that's
what you need.

Not knowing much myself about scanners/shortwaves/hams myself I want to ask
you guys
with more experience if the below piece of equipment is what I need.

As far as I understand this is an handheld ham radio which also functions as
a scanner and
can also receive on a shortwave band. So it will allow me to communicate
with people
far away even in urban setting, it is portable and it will also allow me to
monitor news as
well as police/firefighters etc. Am I right?

Yaesu VX-2R
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0176.html

the price is kind of steep but for all-in-one product I would be willing to
pay it.

Find the local ham club and discuss what you are looking for with one
of them. In my area, you could listen to emergency services.
However, non of them have gone to trunked systems. During
catastrophic events such as hurricanes and ice storms, we provide
interagency communications where there is no common frequency. For
example, we have ridden with the National Guard picking up people
stranded in homes when those people called 911.

Since normal protocol for us it to establish a presence at the
Emergency Communications Center at the request of the County Emergency
Manager, a ham could call for help if needed. Several repeaters in
the area have battery/generator backup, so loss of power is not an
immediate matter for concern. I've seen us without power to the
repeaters for up to two weeks and we kept them going.

So, if you were in my area I'd say to go for it. However, ham radio
is not government sponsored. All of those repeaters are installed,
maintained, and supported by the hams who use them. Therefore,
conditions vary a lot from area to area. For example, my home town
has one repeater and it's at a hams home, maintained by him, and has
no back up power supply. There are three hams that live in the area.
He and his wife are two of them. The radio that you are looking at is
way underpowered for simplex communications between two units. I'd
look at a used two meter mobile and keep my scanner. You can pick up
an older used two meter mobile for less than $100.

I have a lot of advice and opinions, but I'd rather defer to the local
hams in your area who know the specifics of their systems. Give them
a call. Most all hams love to help someone get into the hobby.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 03:03:05 GMT, "mad amoeba" wrote:

i have both cordless phone and an old type phone in my house where the
handset is connected to the base station. Neiher one was working. If I had
to contact either cops or amublance i would have no way of doing that except
of standing on the street and waiting for the cop car to pass by. That's why
i asked the question of how one would keep a line of communications if the
regular ones were out.

Doesn't surprise me all that much that digital or analog mobiles
wouldn't be working, but would think that landlines should have been.

I would expect my landline phone to work for at least 12 hours on a
power failure, and if it didn't would be asking a lot of questions if
it wasn't.

If cannot reliably use a telephone for police, fire, or ambulance
coverage what the hell good is it?

Better to have a good CB or amateur radio transceiver. Other than
emergency use and dialup connection for internet many people could
easily get along without a phone.

Not difficult to get an amateur license these days now that the code
requirement has been wiped. Anyone who knows a bit about radio should
be able to study the regs and pass an exam allowing VHF operation on 2
metres, and the "general class" [ or "full call" ] exam is not that
much harder.

Passing thought: Don't assume that everyone with an amateur license
is going to advertise the fact. If reveal call letters, then name
and address is trackable.

Very dangerous to reveal true name and address on misc.survivalism,
as there are people on misc.survivalism who will not only accuse you
of criminal activities but even make death threats. This warning
especially applies to anyone outside of the USA whatever their
citizenship.

Take it from me. Been there, done that. May be able to offer more
info by email of don't think it is an entrapment excercise.

Maybe better for anyone outside the US to post questions on the
misc.survivalism group and see how they are answered.

If anyone would like to check my past posting history on the
misc.survivalism newsgroup it is easy enough to do by checking through
advanced group search in "Google".

My earlier posts were from another pseudonym, "

I stand on my previous record of useful posts no matter how some on
misc.survivalism are now falsely accusing me.

If any reader who is contemplating posting on this group has any
doubts they might like to ask my accusers for any proof of their
libellous statements.

Am also willing to answer genuine email enquiries.





"Michael Black" wrote in message
...
Tim May ) writes:
In article , mad
amoeba wrote:

I was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me
thinking of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones
were
out.

This is not true. There were long lines to use payphones, and most home
and business phones worked.

I wasn't in the blackout area, but one thing I heard on the radio here
was that people did suffer from lack of phones, because they had only
cordless phones, which of course need power from the AC line. They
couldn't use those phones, and likely some/many thought the phone
lines were down. Only people who had real phones, that get their
limited power needs from the phone line, would know that the phones
were in fact running. I know cordless phones are pretty widespread
at this point, but I have no idea how many households have nothing but
a cordless phone.

Even if phone systems weren't working, one of the things to remember
is that other things come into play in an urban area. If the phone
doesn't
work, then you have your neighbors to talk to. If the phones don't work,
then emergency systems will come into effect, so there will be means of
getting welfare traffic out. For that matter, emergency systems will come
into play to handle local emergency calls.

I think it's a bit of a myth to suggest that amateur radio is a means
for the individual to keep in communication during an emergency.
Amateur radios place in an emergency has always been in terms of
organized help.

So hams work with the Red Cross to supply non-emergency communication to
get around faults and blockades. It's not the place for "help me"
messages,
it's the welfare messages "I am fine, don't worry" or maybe even "I won't
be coming this weekend, the airports are closed" things that might be
important but not of high priority.

And if the emergency warrants it, hams can supply local communcation as
an auxiliary to emergency services. So in some cases, hams could
be a way of providing some sort of replacement for phone lines, with
them placed in important points where it's known people can get to
if they need to communicate.

It's also quite organized, and those hams working in such public
service work prepare for emergencies. Ham radio is not a utility,
so unless the emergency framework is in place, someone getting a license
"in case of an emergency" may not find it all that useful, because as
mentioned the familiar people you want to talk to likely aren't licensed,
and in an emergency one might find the bands crowded with the organized
communication, and for instance, someone doing phone patches may not
feel like dealing with some guy off the street.

In a rural area, I suspect the benefits of amateur radio to the individual
may increase significantly, but then that's the case when there's no
emergency.

And if someone is interested in emergency work, then it probably is
worthwhile getting a ham license, because that will mean one more person
who can help out when an emergency comes up.

Michael

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 03:39:14 GMT, erniegalts
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 03:03:05 GMT, "mad amoeba" wrote:

Not difficult to get an amateur license these days now that the code
requirement has been wiped. Anyone who knows a bit about radio should
be able to study the regs and pass an exam allowing VHF operation on 2
metres, and the "general class" [ or "full call" ] exam is not that
much harder.

General Class license still requires a Morse Code test. Morse has not
been "wiped." It has however, been lowered for the two higher class
licenses from 13 and 20 wpm to 5 wpm for both licenses. Morse is not
required for the Technician license which give full priviliges on
VHF/UHF.

So, once again ernie, you are wrong.

http://www.arrl.org/pio/hamlic.html

Bob Brock wrote:

General Class license still requires a Morse Code test. Morse has not
been "wiped." It has however, been lowered for the two higher class
licenses from 13 and 20 wpm to 5 wpm for both licenses. Morse is not
required for the Technician license which give full priviliges on
VHF/UHF.

So, once again ernie, you are wrong.

http://www.arrl.org/pio/hamlic.html

He's also in Australia, which, to my knowledge, isn't governed by the US
FCC.

I got my Tech license recently, and plan on taking SKYWARN classes in
the spring. The blackout has made me decide to accelerate my purchase
plans for a mobile radio. Handhelds are more portable, but max out at 5w
of transmit power, where most mobiles are 50-55w.

In a life-and-death emergency, anyone is authorized to transmit on any
frequency or any band to try to get help, even if they don't have a ham
license at all.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 06:54:36 GMT, Hagbard Celine
wrote:

Bob Brock wrote:

General Class license still requires a Morse Code test. Morse has not
been "wiped." It has however, been lowered for the two higher class
licenses from 13 and 20 wpm to 5 wpm for both licenses. Morse is not
required for the Technician license which give full priviliges on
VHF/UHF.

So, once again ernie, you are wrong.

http://www.arrl.org/pio/hamlic.html

He's also in Australia, which, to my knowledge, isn't governed by the US
FCC.

Well, to the best of my knowledge, I didn't use the term FCC. The IAU
set the morse requirement. However, just to set the record straight,
let's look here.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2000/03/30/1/?nc=1

South Africa, Australia to Adopt 5 WPM Morse Test for Full HF Access

BTW, ernie was giving advice to someone who was impacted by the recent
power outage. I don't think it reached as far as Oz. So it doesn't
matter if he was talking about the NE US or Oz, he was wrong.
However, you will find that when ernie is wrong, he never acknowledges
that he has made a mistake. He simply moves to another thread and
starts over.


I got my Tech license recently, and plan on taking SKYWARN classes in
the spring. The blackout has made me decide to accelerate my purchase
plans for a mobile radio. Handhelds are more portable, but max out at 5w
of transmit power, where most mobiles are 50-55w.

You can pick up an amplifier for a few bucks to get you to the 25-30
watt zone. Going to 50 watts will only give you a 3 db gain. I've
got one laying around here somewhere that you could have if I can find
it.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 06:54:36 GMT, Hagbard Celine
wrote:

Bob Brock wrote:

General Class license still requires a Morse Code test. Morse has not
been "wiped." It has however, been lowered for the two higher class
licenses from 13 and 20 wpm to 5 wpm for both licenses. Morse is not
required for the Technician license which give full priviliges on
VHF/UHF.

So, once again ernie, you are wrong.

Not required here for some years now, at least for what you are
calling a "Technician license" which covers 2 metres and is useful for
communication in that band.

Are you going to call me wrong on this issue???

Please advise.

erniegalts

http://www.arrl.org/pio/hamlic.html

He's also in Australia, which, to my knowledge, isn't governed by the US
FCC.

I got my Tech license recently, and plan on taking SKYWARN classes in
the spring. The blackout has made me decide to accelerate my purchase
plans for a mobile radio. Handhelds are more portable, but max out at 5w
of transmit power, where most mobiles are 50-55w.

In a life-and-death emergency, anyone is authorized to transmit on any
frequency or any band to try to get help, even if they don't have a ham
license at all.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 07:51:40 GMT, erniegalts
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 06:54:36 GMT, Hagbard Celine
wrote:

Bob Brock wrote:

General Class license still requires a Morse Code test. Morse has not
been "wiped." It has however, been lowered for the two higher class
licenses from 13 and 20 wpm to 5 wpm for both licenses. Morse is not
required for the Technician license which give full priviliges on
VHF/UHF.

So, once again ernie, you are wrong.

Not required here for some years now, at least for what you are
calling a "Technician license" which covers 2 metres and is useful for
communication in that band.

Are you going to call me wrong on this issue???

Please advise.

Which issue do you want me to call you wrong on ernie? The first
piece of inaccurate information that you posted of this metamorphisis
of it?

On your initial statement, yes you were wrong. In case you forgot
this was your initial statement...

"Not difficult to get an amateur license these days now that the code
requirement has been wiped. Anyone who knows a bit about radio should
be able to study the regs and pass an exam allowing VHF operation on 2
metres, and the "general class" [ or "full call" ] exam is not that
much harder."